A little bit of a different style of video today, but something I've been wanting to make for awhile! Hope you enjoy it, and let me know if you have any thoughts on how we could get to the bottom of this thing... Happy Hunting!
I have a theory what if the password is in numbers like when you want to put a certain letter to write or speak to someone in old phones you have to go to the number and pres it a certain times to go toward that letter,but what if it was in reverse?(Like uzziah:899424)
gonna say this here cause i feel like it has the best chance of reply, but has anyone tried to decipher the trash text from the email with the key pad on the burner phone, or is that a dead end as well?
In the description for his game The Other Side, Mike Klubnika mentions that the 1998 technology in his games is actually from thousands of years in that universe's past. Which is interesting.
Wait what if that means that long ago satan killed god as proven by his waver but then , Volta using satanic rituals trapped him in a machine to empower their products. And that machine is the dealer
Although it’s the publisher of the game who made the ARG, I wonder how much consulting or influence the game creator has over it, considering how hands-on the ARG creator seems.
From what I understand, setting it up was a collaborative effort even though he does not follow it as cloesly as Critical Reflex. It also leads me to believe that any lore we may uncover is probably canon info.
My next question would be to see if any of the Dev's other games have subtly been updated since Buckshot's release. I think of McMullen's ARGs with Hex and Inscryption and how they required his other ganes to solve
This is a great point, considering how the devs of inscription and buckshot have clearly spoken with one another as they have their games in a bundle called “literally the same game”, which makes me think inspiration may have been taken from that past arg.
Flawed Peacock goes pretty in-depth with them, granted with a lot of his own theorizing in a very stream-of-consciousness presentation format, if you have several hours to burn.
Strangely, i haven't really seen anyone mention it, but what if the entire game is somehow a simulation? Since Mike stated that it takes in the same universe as his other works, he has a game called "Tartarus Engine" which is about a mountain-sized supercomputer used solely for torture by trapping your mind in an endless simulation. Might explain all the oddities of the game i.e. shotgun regenerating its barrel, or how our head doesn't get blown off by a point-blank shotgun shot.
It also makes sense for it to be within the simulation, as it seems the player has no choice but to endure this torture time and time again. As if by winning, you are still losing, because this single night will continue over and over and over again. Does closing the game count as "sleeping" until you come back? What would happen to the person we're playing as if it was never played to begin with, or we stop playing? It also explains why "God" is presumably dead or why you can't input "GOD" into the waiver without it being rejected. But another interesting spooky idea is that we are playing as God, but we already lost before, or something. (Perhaps building on his other games, God is not dead but rather captured or whatever.) No proof, and easily debunked, but a very interesting idea.
It could also be supernatural. There's a lotta God talk in this ARG, and quite frankly, the dealer looks like a corpse held together through some force beyond our comprehension. Hell if this ARG is cannon, he might be cursed to feed the very machine he plays the game with for all eternity. Now Mike did say all of his games are connected, so the supernatural elements can be interpreted as that but... I dunno I'm not gonna lie I think it just being a torture simulator is just... Meh? Ya know. But that's probably more a me thing.
And quite honestly- both Tartarus Engine and Infineural are industries which would impart tremendous ammount of guilt to workers behind the scenes. Afterall, one is a stright forward torture method, the other- becomes one when people learn truth of what they are doing. But besides this- I sincerely hope this sorta thing won't break what Buckshot Roulete is as a story- as it stands on it's own legs without needing to be interconected. A story as old as time- of a man playing a game with the Devil, the price being man's life, the flurishes added by a new author making things more interesting. Each teasing unknown making the story into an ocean, but each overexplanation making it into a puddle.
If only the ARG was a bit more... well put together. I don't mind hints from the creator, sometimes you need them. But I think being given the decoding website could've been implemented better.
The creator generally handles it poorly. The point of hosting an ARG is to stand back and give indirect hints and not... that. The addition of poor Dante also makes me sick, as the poor work is often overused and shoved virtually anywhere it could even remotely fit. Which is a shame. Klubnika's universe had so much untapped potential for a kickаss ARG.
@@wutang_bing8090 Ong, I can't imagine why they thought having the ARG be made by someone who calls everyone kittens is a good idea. It's weird, and honestly, very off-putting.
The lot o'ya sound like party poopers. I like that it's a little different, but of course, it is quite amateurish. Although not many of those big fancy ARG creators first forays into the medium were quite as popular as this one, their more refined works getting the attention, it's likely this is Critical Reflex's first attempt, I wouldn't be too hard on 'em.
You forgot to mention that Rita gave the comunity multiple hints about the password: the password is 6-20 long, the password page was made with a platform called Tilda, the password is the standard Tilda password if its mentioned in the page's settings and it has special characters.
I don't know if it has been said already!! But I think I found a clue. The trailer said to remember a specific date... ...in the beginning of carbon steel, at your workplace, you actually find an email from "anon" from said date?!
Please make sure to make a follow up video on this one if the password is cracked! I love videos covering video game ARGs so much. Another amazing one to look into is the Waking Titan ARG which was created for No Man’s Sky Atlas Rises update. It’s been solved but a lot of us think it’s actually just dormant based off of things found in the more recent updates. As for this ARG, I think the hints to Dante’s Inferno must be pointing to something. Greed is a sin after all, and the whole point to gambling is greed. I’m curious about the creators other games, if any of them could be tied to different sins. Hell who knows, maybe the password could be something to do with those games’ names if there are more of them. Just a thought.
"You have the clue to progress. You're just not paying attention at all". Yep. If giving a ridiculous amount of hints and the scuffed ARG wasn't enough, this is what was the final nail in the coffin that made me completely disinterested in what this ARG has to offer. If the ARG has run cold, it's not that people aren't paying attention, it's that the solution is something so obtuse that only the creator would naturally come to that conclusion. The thing about puzzles is that YOU know the solution, but other people are not gonna get to that conclusion unless you guide them there. Right now, since everyone is waiting for a hint, there hasn't been enough guiding in the ARG itself. That's not someone "not paying attention". That's a failure as a writer. This reeks of Scott Cawthon's "There are no holes in the plot; only holes in your understanding" line. Also please stop calling people kittens. Cringe culture is dead and all, but there's a reason people associate discord moderators and the term kitten.
Here's a thought: Maybe the creator of Buckshot Roulette updated one of his previous games to tie along with the ARG? If I remember correctly, the game before Buckshot had something to do with a machine. That could be a place to start.
What stands out the most to me is the Koni Ärikson name. For something with so much heavy Latin influences, the umlauts are strange. Ärik has two histories to it, Nordic and Hebrew, but both are interesting. Arik in Hebrew is a variant of Ariel which means “Lion of God” and Ärik is Norse means “eternal ruler”. With that you can make the assumption that Ärikson may mean “Son of the Lion of God” or “Son of the Eternal Ruler”. Perhaps even “Son of God” with God being the Eternal Ruler. This also made me look into Jotham, son of Uzziah, but nothing has come out of that.
If it hasn't already been looked through, I would highly suggest efforts be put into looking at the second lesser known book of the Divine comedy, Purgatorio. My interpretation of the poem is that the game itself represents purgatory as we are above the "dance of hell" and the machine it mentions is holding the player in a limbo between life and death.
The guy mentioned that fortified walls sounds like who made the world in game as in some other games its shown all of humanity lives in a big bunker structure
The end of the email reply stands out to me: "In case of any new developments, the Volta Standard Electronics Helpline will reach out to you directly!" Is there a way to email from a particularly named email address, then play the game using the same name as your email? Is there a way to get Volta to "reach out to you directly?"
For what it's worth, I backtracked that Aphex Twin photo to its reference page on Wikimedia Commons and it's from a show he did at the "Traffic - Torino Free Festival 2005" in Torino, Italy - also known as Turin, as in the "Shroud of Turin". No idea if it fits anywhere, but since this story seems rooted in Christian mythology there could be a lead there.
This ARG is quite the mess, you can very clearly tell the team that put this together is very new to this. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, you gotta start somewhere. But's a little hard to keep interest if we're going to basically be given answer because people are having trouble navigating this puzzle that wasn't put together all that well. Hope the ARG improves over time with the experience and feedback they receive. The world the ARG is built off of is genuinely super cool, so I hope they're able to make something special with it one day.
Base64 is not encryption because it has no secret password. It’s also formatted differently. The website you show says it’s an AES decrypt tool and you show a password being input. That is the encryption.
Man, I remember hearing a single thing about this ARG a while ago and it was that the people trying to figure it out were stumped by a password...was wondering where that lead but it seems it hasn’t been solved yet 💀 Then again an ARG without a good puzzle and mystery is no fun, can’t wait to see where it leads! great video, hope you keep us posted.
That's what I hate about arg games. Needless desire to cling to the easily missable details that can be obtained and not noticed. While everything else might be logical and sound, the bullcrap like this never is, even after it gets found out
The references to machinery and Hell remind me of one of Mike's previous games, Tarturus Engine, which can be found on Unsorted Horror. I won't spoil anything, but I think Buckshot Roulette seems to be calling back to that game in particular.
Idea: the password and Dante's Inferno bit might tie into the souls who were born too early to learn about jesus but weren't sinners. I'd try going through the list of those. Maybe specifically those who would have been tied to the construction of machinery or invention. Maybe Daedelous?
Okay looking more into it. Daedelus made the Labrynth in greek mythology, the weird ceaser cypher quote is from circle 7, specifically the circle where the minotaur is mentioned. I believe there is a connection here.
God I love hidden stuff like this. Never played this game but the ID Number on the computer HAS to be a clue or something that’ll help things move forward (?)
I’m 4 minutes in, and wonder if you’ll mention the trailer having a quick shot of the date of august 5 1998, and connecting it to one of the creators other games where it was literally that day.
Wow. I'm really glad I stumbled onto this, I love how you presented this! I heard this game had an ARG, but I didn't know it was this deep. I can't wait until that password gets cracked.
The obvious thing is to say the fourth line would be what's important. In the Divine Commedy, the numbers of the rings of Hell increase as you descend. The game's themes deal heavily in Greed, the fourth ring, so "and blood" would be what I'd focus on.
If you attribute the "roulette" to greed, the layer beneath would be anger. It fails to correlate with "the party below", as that would be gluttony (overindulging in food and celebration), which is one layer above.
@@longlivethe9989 Ooh, that's true Maybe there's a way of organizing the poem to fit the descent? Or the order of them corresponding to the rings makes a code?
@@epicvirgin6444 In my case, it's mostly just chained by red flags. Typically, discord users who refer to others as "kittens" are frequently discovered to be pedophiles.
Kitten might not be a nickname but a hint. Also one of the trailers you showed mentioned something about “harvesting”. Maybe everyone is thinking of Hell when we should look up. Purgatory? Heaven? Who knows?
- Chief: We need answers God Dammit, and the trail is turning cold. I think we need to contact "him". Later that day in a dinner at night. - Chief: I've heard that when it comes to ARGs you are one of the best, I've come here because I need help. -Matt: How many times do I have to tell your department that I don't theorize anymore, I am finally retired. -Chief: I know but we are stuck and running out of options. The suspect in question left us a code and we need a pass code to break it, I know this isn't FNAF, but perhaps that is just what you need, just solve the code and then forget about it. -Matt: ..... I might give it a look.
I'm going to go out and say that, from the fact the cyphertext needed a very specific tool to decypher, the mannerisms of the person who made the Arg, the fact that person is the publisher and not the developer, and the fact that the monitor only appears for some people (I have personally never got it to show), it all seems a bit poorly constructed, probably by someone so obsessed with lore in a game where there obviously is none that they pressured the developer to work with them on this. For legal resons surrounding libel law, that is my own speculation and not in any way an insinuation that a discord user that calls everyone "kitten" is a manipulative predator. What I will insinuate is that this person didn't give two poos about accesibility, since they had to dump the specific tool on their discord for anyone to have a hope of progressing.
i feel the same about it, if it requires the creator of the ARG to get actively involved to advance a substantial part of the ARG, it's probably not worth it in the long run, doesn't seem to be thought out very well
this entire arg is kind of poorly executed. it feels more like some kind of wild goose chase with us being the gooses and the arg's creator dangling a carrot on a stick rather than an actual immersive experience. plus, being called a "kitten" and the creator calling themselves a "proud cat owner" in a grimey, dark and twisted game, is just so out of left field. leaves a weird taste about the entire thing.
maybe you're Dante, and the dealer is Vergil? could have something to do with greed? (endless mode) the Fourth Circle is guarded by "Plutus" Greed is also known as "avarice" i don't know if anything from the other games could give further hints, but its worth a shot to look into
I know you tried Uzziah as a password, but it’s a name. Try naming your character Uzziah and see if something happens? Idk if that’s been tried before.
I think that there is not enough attention paid to Mike's other games, given that it's been straight up confirmed that at least some take place in the same universe. In specific, the Tartarus Engine, a game about an enormous supercomputer who's sole purpose is to simulate endless suffering. Given the many mentions of machinery and especially the bible verse it will surely be relevant in one way or another I think.
If this lore is going off of dante's inferno and the 9 circles of hell, this is the best i got for what i think it may mean. This goes off Mike Klubnika's games and the corresponding "layers" of hell. 0 - the darkwood - the other side 1 - limbo - tartarus engine 2 - lust - ??? 3 - gluttony - buckshot roulette 4 - greed - For the Entity 5 - anger - ??? 6 - heresy - control room alpha 7 - violence - concrete tremor 8 - fraud - core 9 - treachery - carbon steel
So much lore I just had no idea about, and to think it’s still going around. I’d throw my hat into the ring but I’m not nearly creative enough to make any progress. I just can’t see outside the box
This seemed cool at first but, 100% the weird discord mods fault for the ARG going cold. As soon as you have to start handing out hints for people to progress you've failed as an ARG. Real shame.
By popping in and saying "I made it good luck" the immersion begins to break. I'd personally pretend I don't know there's a whole ass ARG in my game lol
@@ThatNoobKingi don’t doubt that it’s generic elevator music i just think this specific generic music was probably used in many pieces of media which may include The Stanley Parable
Got super fixated on the phone, ended up finding it's a N502it and there's a phone on a Wikimedia Commons with the exact same blemishes on the screen. The left hand button that looks like a face is originally the inbox icon which is an envelope with a 1 and the right hand one that looks like the dealer is a book.
At 11:50 the music that plays at the end of the phone call is the same music that plays in the game The Stanley Parable. It plays when you enter the elevator near the boss's office. Not sure if this is a hint or a reference, but it is worth of note
The 2 things that kept buzzing around is why on the website does 9 key does not finish the alphabet my small guess is that taking the scramble after the 9 key is its own possible code. Second, is the start of that phone start-up, not all codes are set with text, maybe try an audio code there.
Oh god the poem relates to carbon steel so much.'they won't ever forgive me or will I not forgive myself.i made a wish upon a falling star and it brought me nothing but misery'says how the protagonist in carbon steel got prideful and did something terrible stated later on.'the machine hungers fed by blooming shots and blood and luck'relates to the machine that brought all of the pain to the underground creatures tortured by this machine.'its chewing,metallic,vile and still brings more comfort than the dance of hell'says how it feeds upon the monsters pain and states how it's worse than all the monsters underground.
did you know buckshot roulette is made by an Estonian? (i am also Estonian, so it was such a big surprise to see that an Estonian made such a great game.)
That area between the "bathroom" and "dining room" seems a bit interesting to me. I can't really check it myself because i know little about technology.
Well, just stumbled in and decided to try a couple things. August 5, 1998 is Leo sign and Tiger zodiac (something I'm not convinced is coincidence with the players being referred to as 'kittens'). Did try checking the divine comedy for lions (as they are a common symbol in the Old Testament), found the woods scene and tried a few things related to that with no success (leopard, lion, pride and wolf are duds). Wouldn't discount the scene though, as I'm not exactly good at these things and I didn't take a lot of time trying to fit other pieces in. Another idea would be to look into Otto Kretschemer or Todor Zhivkov, who both died that day. I'd lean more towards Zhivkov, as he was an eastern bloc leader and that's the kind of vibes I've been getting from the game.
Maybe uzziah is the key phrase for a cipher? or 26:15.... actually maybe a time code? I know its verse and line but it fits, I'm throwing spaghetti at the wall to be honest. but they're ideas. there's reading between the lines. there's also mention of salivation, the Adrenaline mentions one of the mortal sins, but the main character doesn't want money. They're in purgatory if the inverters text is to be believed, below hell (the rave) above paradise. of course alot of the games have that struggle for that, to be in a better place, or to find something better, paradise. that may be a later hint?
Idea: the phone is actually a prototype model of the retail device, since the different coloring of it. and with volta's involvment with alive devices, the phone is a supernatural entity, accidentally created, that can tell you a bunch of information, that you cant access yourself due to being watched by the dealer
So very specific psalm was in the phone 26:15, so you have to now see what uzziahs chapter shows. There will be probably a hint on to your next chapter.
My thought is that the nightclub itself is hell, and that the dance floor is the 9th layer. The player is trapped forever in this hellish loop, dealing with the devil over and over again to try to gain freedom.
all this talk about hell, engines and organic computers only made me think about mike's other game, Tartarus Engine Might be a good place to look for clues especially since the unsorted horror collection on steam got updated 4 months ago. and it also includes the other side and concrete tremors, which might have something to do with volta now that i think about it, the entire game of buckshot roulette might take place in one of the engine's simulations
@@spaceacepl4636 idk if you'd classify endless games of life and death roulette as pleasure. The pain after getting shot is real, "dying" seems canon based on the voice line from the dealer. The money you get is just a carrot on a stick, in an endless game of pain Cause even after you win, you come back for more gambling, more pain
@@spaceacepl4636 i dont think you could classify endless games of constantly getting shot in the head and revived as pleasure the pain is real, and it seems "dying" is canon based on the dealer's lines. the money you get is just a carrot on the stick, cause regardless if you win or lose you keep coming back for more gambling, more suffering
@@Milbyte11 it's still gambling though and gambling isn't just suffering, it can also be an addiction, a way to feel joy not just from the reward a gambler gets, but also from the activity itself also, is dying really the actual canon result of that encounter with the dealer? i can't remember a single piece of dialogue which would suggest that the gambler died in that room instead of getting the cash
@@spaceacepl4636 no its when *you* die, aka on the 3rd phase when the dealer disables the defiblirators, after you respawn from the game over screen he says "I better not see you here again" you can feel joy from even the most seemingly horrible activities, but thats not what addiction feels like most of the time, people that keep gambling describe it more as a state of numbness rather than joy the game being a simulation in the engine also helps to explain the more "gamey" aspects, like the shotgun somehow regenerating the barrel after you use a saw, or how defiblirators can heal a hole in the head
I don't think this line of thinking is going to lead anywhere, but has anyone looked into Klubnika's other games? If Buckshot Roulette takes place in the same universe, and the other games do have relevant details relating to Volta and such like I've been seeing in the comments, maybe we can find more pieces to put together there? Even if not through specific ARG elements than bits and pieces of lore to drive the next line of thinking?
There is something weird about the png of the tv, its like there is a picture over the tv in the website (not the password one) also there is png of 1x1 pixel idk why
A little bit of a different style of video today, but something I've been wanting to make for awhile! Hope you enjoy it, and let me know if you have any thoughts on how we could get to the bottom of this thing... Happy Hunting!
What circle is the quote from?
Has anyone tried graphing the matrix on the computer screen? Seems like a longshot but heck if I know
I have a theory what if the password is in numbers like when you want to put a certain letter to write or speak to someone in old phones you have to go to the number and pres it a certain times to go toward that letter,but what if it was in reverse?(Like uzziah:899424)
@@jacobf6945 The password may also be related to a specific ring of the inferno
gonna say this here cause i feel like it has the best chance of reply, but has anyone tried to decipher the trash text from the email with the key pad on the burner phone, or is that a dead end as well?
When you go to heaven in the game, there's an option to retry, and when you go back, the dealer says "I better not see you here again"
I only realized this the other day when getting footage for this vid... crazy stuff
That genuinely freaked me out when I saw that. I thought it would’ve rolled back to the time just after round two, but no. You really do resurrect.
It's like you are Stuck in a living hell only to die again and again until you finally win
That implies your character must be God. How would you get to heaven, or find your way back otherwise?
@@Adventist1997 maybe since god is dead there are no normal "laws" of death and alive anymore
... every time I heard the word "kitten", my fight-or-flight kicks in.
Kitten
@@FreezeFrameYTthey said heard not seen
@@garbearboy but the trick is, when you read something in your head, you're hearing it in your mind >=)
"...and I'm a flightless bird"
@@FreezeFrameYT yes, but they probably uhh... uhm... tbh idk but i uhm uh forgor 💀
In the description for his game The Other Side, Mike Klubnika mentions that the 1998 technology in his games is actually from thousands of years in that universe's past. Which is interesting.
Oh that is interesting indeed. Good find!
Wait what if that means that long ago satan killed god as proven by his waver but then , Volta using satanic rituals trapped him in a machine to empower their products. And that machine is the dealer
Big warframe 1999 vibes with that
I honestly initially assumed the "dance of hell" would've just been referring to the rave going on below the balcony
Ooh that's a real good thought!
Same
The dealer is a devilesque figure. We know the building is underground because of his other works so maybe it’s the 9 circles of hell
Wait a sec, could the floor you are on be one circle of Inferno?
@everberon i thought you hadnt mentioned it because it was too obvious
Although it’s the publisher of the game who made the ARG, I wonder how much consulting or influence the game creator has over it, considering how hands-on the ARG creator seems.
From what I understand, setting it up was a collaborative effort even though he does not follow it as cloesly as Critical Reflex. It also leads me to believe that any lore we may uncover is probably canon info.
"Imagine you wake up in a place unfamiliar to you"
Imagine? It's called sunday morning.
My next question would be to see if any of the Dev's other games have subtly been updated since Buckshot's release. I think of McMullen's ARGs with Hex and Inscryption and how they required his other ganes to solve
This is a great point, considering how the devs of inscription and buckshot have clearly spoken with one another as they have their games in a bundle called “literally the same game”, which makes me think inspiration may have been taken from that past arg.
Is there a video around explaining their ARG?
@@Anvekeen there are several, but I can't remember the creators' names off hand
Flawed Peacock goes pretty in-depth with them, granted with a lot of his own theorizing in a very stream-of-consciousness presentation format, if you have several hours to burn.
@@Anvekeen Flemmonade's videos are pretty in-depth and he has covered all of them iirc
Strangely, i haven't really seen anyone mention it, but what if the entire game is somehow a simulation? Since Mike stated that it takes in the same universe as his other works, he has a game called "Tartarus Engine" which is about a mountain-sized supercomputer used solely for torture by trapping your mind in an endless simulation. Might explain all the oddities of the game i.e. shotgun regenerating its barrel, or how our head doesn't get blown off by a point-blank shotgun shot.
It also makes sense for it to be within the simulation, as it seems the player has no choice but to endure this torture time and time again. As if by winning, you are still losing, because this single night will continue over and over and over again. Does closing the game count as "sleeping" until you come back? What would happen to the person we're playing as if it was never played to begin with, or we stop playing?
It also explains why "God" is presumably dead or why you can't input "GOD" into the waiver without it being rejected. But another interesting spooky idea is that we are playing as God, but we already lost before, or something. (Perhaps building on his other games, God is not dead but rather captured or whatever.) No proof, and easily debunked, but a very interesting idea.
I think most of his games take place in the tartarus engine
It could also be supernatural. There's a lotta God talk in this ARG, and quite frankly, the dealer looks like a corpse held together through some force beyond our comprehension. Hell if this ARG is cannon, he might be cursed to feed the very machine he plays the game with for all eternity.
Now Mike did say all of his games are connected, so the supernatural elements can be interpreted as that but... I dunno I'm not gonna lie I think it just being a torture simulator is just... Meh? Ya know. But that's probably more a me thing.
And quite honestly- both Tartarus Engine and Infineural are industries which would impart tremendous ammount of guilt to workers behind the scenes.
Afterall, one is a stright forward torture method, the other- becomes one when people learn truth of what they are doing.
But besides this- I sincerely hope this sorta thing won't break what Buckshot Roulete is as a story- as it stands on it's own legs without needing to be interconected.
A story as old as time- of a man playing a game with the Devil, the price being man's life, the flurishes added by a new author making things more interesting. Each teasing unknown making the story into an ocean, but each overexplanation making it into a puddle.
it is
YOU! CREATOR! TAKE MY ENGAGEMENT SO THAT THE ALGORITHM RECOMMENDS YOUR VIDEO MORE
THANK YOU o7
It seemingly worked
Aggressive kindness
Agreed!
ill help too
If only the ARG was a bit more... well put together. I don't mind hints from the creator, sometimes you need them. But I think being given the decoding website could've been implemented better.
Can’t expect much from a cringe Egirl who is calling everyone kittens
The creator generally handles it poorly. The point of hosting an ARG is to stand back and give indirect hints and not... that.
The addition of poor Dante also makes me sick, as the poor work is often overused and shoved virtually anywhere it could even remotely fit.
Which is a shame. Klubnika's universe had so much untapped potential for a kickаss ARG.
@@wutang_bing8090 Ong, I can't imagine why they thought having the ARG be made by someone who calls everyone kittens is a good idea. It's weird, and honestly, very off-putting.
The lot o'ya sound like party poopers. I like that it's a little different, but of course, it is quite amateurish. Although not many of those big fancy ARG creators first forays into the medium were quite as popular as this one, their more refined works getting the attention, it's likely this is Critical Reflex's first attempt, I wouldn't be too hard on 'em.
yeesh yall sure do hate people being whimsy
You forgot to mention that Rita gave the comunity multiple hints about the password: the password is 6-20 long, the password page was made with a platform called Tilda, the password is the standard Tilda password if its mentioned in the page's settings and it has special characters.
Tried to follow this up on Tilda with no luck. Good info to know though!
I don't know if it has been said already!! But I think I found a clue. The trailer said to remember a specific date...
...in the beginning of carbon steel, at your workplace, you actually find an email from "anon" from said date?!
Cool
Please make sure to make a follow up video on this one if the password is cracked! I love videos covering video game ARGs so much. Another amazing one to look into is the Waking Titan ARG which was created for No Man’s Sky Atlas Rises update. It’s been solved but a lot of us think it’s actually just dormant based off of things found in the more recent updates.
As for this ARG, I think the hints to Dante’s Inferno must be pointing to something. Greed is a sin after all, and the whole point to gambling is greed. I’m curious about the creators other games, if any of them could be tied to different sins. Hell who knows, maybe the password could be something to do with those games’ names if there are more of them. Just a thought.
That's a great thought, both about the No Man's Sky ARG and this one! Thank you.
If you want quick essays of the other games, Pyrocinical made a hour long video about this and the other games.
dante's inferno
buckshot roulette is ultrakill holy shit
@@snakesbakecookies How so? The *Ultrakill* timeline so far doesn’t seem to have room for the timeline shown throughout this video.
@@mixednarwhal I’m kidding but Ultrakill is based ENTIRELY on Dante’s inferno so I can’t rly think of anything else when hearing abt it
"You have the clue to progress. You're just not paying attention at all".
Yep. If giving a ridiculous amount of hints and the scuffed ARG wasn't enough, this is what was the final nail in the coffin that made me completely disinterested in what this ARG has to offer.
If the ARG has run cold, it's not that people aren't paying attention, it's that the solution is something so obtuse that only the creator would naturally come to that conclusion. The thing about puzzles is that YOU know the solution, but other people are not gonna get to that conclusion unless you guide them there. Right now, since everyone is waiting for a hint, there hasn't been enough guiding in the ARG itself. That's not someone "not paying attention". That's a failure as a writer. This reeks of Scott Cawthon's "There are no holes in the plot; only holes in your understanding" line.
Also please stop calling people kittens. Cringe culture is dead and all, but there's a reason people associate discord moderators and the term kitten.
Damm bro
19:06 August 5th 1998 is my actual birthdate ....... That was a weird thing to experience
Remember it!
remember.
Hey, same here! Birthday buddies! I'll be sure to remember it, though!
@@Jarateispiss
I feel left out... I was born on the eighth 😢
Remember
Here's a thought: Maybe the creator of Buckshot Roulette updated one of his previous games to tie along with the ARG? If I remember correctly, the game before Buckshot had something to do with a machine. That could be a place to start.
Someone early on had this thought too, i'm not sure if anything has come of it other than some potential lore tie-ins.
none of them have been updated since the release of buckshot letalone the steam release
Maybe the circle of greed has an answer, is it case sensitive? Is to be reencrypted
What stands out the most to me is the Koni Ärikson name. For something with so much heavy Latin influences, the umlauts are strange.
Ärik has two histories to it, Nordic and Hebrew, but both are interesting. Arik in Hebrew is a variant of Ariel which means “Lion of God” and Ärik is Norse means “eternal ruler”. With that you can make the assumption that Ärikson may mean “Son of the Lion of God” or “Son of the Eternal Ruler”. Perhaps even “Son of God” with God being the Eternal Ruler. This also made me look into Jotham, son of Uzziah, but nothing has come out of that.
you got son of from getting the parallels lions have visually to the Sun right?
I think it's just the son part in Ärikson
Or, you know, it's just a silly Sony Ericsson reference.
@@NotWendy3 Most definitely but at the same time ARGs using dumb references to actually carry some big lore so there is always the chance.
The lion of God could be the demiurge ( the lion headed snake)
another banger as always. didn’t even know buckshot roulette had an arg!! :0
Thanks! Yep, it's been fairly underground thus far. Give it a try! It definitely feels solvable.
Me neither
Fun fact 'Koni Arikson' is a parody of the 'Sony Ericsson', might be useful?
Sony Ericsson was the first thing to come in mind when I saw that
If it hasn't already been looked through, I would highly suggest efforts be put into looking at the second lesser known book of the Divine comedy, Purgatorio. My interpretation of the poem is that the game itself represents purgatory as we are above the "dance of hell" and the machine it mentions is holding the player in a limbo between life and death.
Agreed. I've started to go baco ajd look through this as well, but we definateoy need more eyes on the puzzle.
I wonder if Uzziah shows up in the divine comedy. I know a few prominent figures are in Inferno. Haven't read the others.
I feel like this ARG had a lot of potential but seemed kinda like an afterthought that wasnt really fully implemented or thought out/put together
20:30 I’m not sure this is relevant but I tried scanning the QR code and it pulled a picture of man looking distressed
It's a picture of the musician Aphex Twin from his wikipedia page
lmfaooo aphex twin what you doing here
that's Aphex Twin, a musician that Mike Klubnika mentioned as an inspiration for some of the tracks in Buckshot Roulette, in the q&a
The guy mentioned that fortified walls sounds like who made the world in game as in some other games its shown all of humanity lives in a big bunker structure
i had a stroke reading this
@@gamig_mastr1671 skill issue
The end of the email reply stands out to me: "In case of any new developments, the Volta Standard Electronics Helpline will reach out to you directly!"
Is there a way to email from a particularly named email address, then play the game using the same name as your email? Is there a way to get Volta to "reach out to you directly?"
Yeah, there is something there.
no. they decompiled the game and there are no secrets with names
heard of the mystery from Oddheadder funny enough. clad you covered it
I saw that video when it came out, and it reminded me of this again, so I figured it was time to cover it lol
For what it's worth, I backtracked that Aphex Twin photo to its reference page on Wikimedia Commons and it's from a show he did at the "Traffic - Torino Free Festival 2005" in Torino, Italy - also known as Turin, as in the "Shroud of Turin". No idea if it fits anywhere, but since this story seems rooted in Christian mythology there could be a lead there.
For anyone wondering "Volta Aricson" does not work as the password and i checked the wiki on someone named alessandro Volta and couldn't find anything
this video was great honestly i hope this channel becomes bigger soon much deserved
Thank you!
rita is wild for this one, who let a discord mod manage an arg 😭😭
Scary stuff
This ARG is quite the mess, you can very clearly tell the team that put this together is very new to this. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, you gotta start somewhere. But's a little hard to keep interest if we're going to basically be given answer because people are having trouble navigating this puzzle that wasn't put together all that well.
Hope the ARG improves over time with the experience and feedback they receive. The world the ARG is built off of is genuinely super cool, so I hope they're able to make something special with it one day.
Like if you have to tell them the answer at each step of the puzzle, it might not be logical.
getting hints from a cat girl to a grimy and unsettling arg is WILD
Me: Aww, not a cyberpunk lore video.
Later...
Me: That was still really good!
Lol thank you!
Hey, at least it still fits some form of punk, y’know?
Base64 is not encryption because it has no secret password. It’s also formatted differently. The website you show says it’s an AES decrypt tool and you show a password being input. That is the encryption.
Right? That part got me so confused
Man, I remember hearing a single thing about this ARG a while ago and it was that the people trying to figure it out were stumped by a password...was wondering where that lead but it seems it hasn’t been solved yet 💀 Then again an ARG without a good puzzle and mystery is no fun, can’t wait to see where it leads! great video, hope you keep us posted.
god why does the arg creator have to call them kittens oh my god why why why there's like a 85% chance something bad will come of this
That's what I hate about arg games. Needless desire to cling to the easily missable details that can be obtained and not noticed. While everything else might be logical and sound, the bullcrap like this never is, even after it gets found out
The references to machinery and Hell remind me of one of Mike's previous games, Tarturus Engine, which can be found on Unsorted Horror. I won't spoil anything, but I think Buckshot Roulette seems to be calling back to that game in particular.
Idea: the password and Dante's Inferno bit might tie into the souls who were born too early to learn about jesus but weren't sinners. I'd try going through the list of those. Maybe specifically those who would have been tied to the construction of machinery or invention. Maybe Daedelous?
Okay looking more into it. Daedelus made the Labrynth in greek mythology, the weird ceaser cypher quote is from circle 7, specifically the circle where the minotaur is mentioned. I believe there is a connection here.
don't mind me, just pushing the vid to the algorithm.
Great vid, it's a shame I haven't discovered your channel earlier
Thank you so much 🎉
God I love hidden stuff like this.
Never played this game but the ID Number on the computer HAS to be a clue or something that’ll help things move forward (?)
I’m 4 minutes in, and wonder if you’ll mention the trailer having a quick shot of the date of august 5 1998, and connecting it to one of the creators other games where it was literally that day.
What game ?
@@brendannelson525 carbon steel, I think. The one where you have to do experiments on deep sea monsters.
I wonder if setting your computers date and time and playing the game with the listed date might do something...
Just tried that, nothing happened personally
Wow. I'm really glad I stumbled onto this, I love how you presented this! I heard this game had an ARG, but I didn't know it was this deep. I can't wait until that password gets cracked.
The obvious thing is to say the fourth line would be what's important.
In the Divine Commedy, the numbers of the rings of Hell increase as you descend. The game's themes deal heavily in Greed, the fourth ring, so "and blood" would be what I'd focus on.
If you attribute the "roulette" to greed, the layer beneath would be anger. It fails to correlate with "the party below", as that would be gluttony (overindulging in food and celebration), which is one layer above.
@@longlivethe9989 Ooh, that's true
Maybe there's a way of organizing the poem to fit the descent? Or the order of them corresponding to the rings makes a code?
@@zeroanonymity9736I like your style.
Also found that "Taci, maledetto lupo!" is also found in the Greed portion of Dante's Inferno, particularly in Canto 7.
The discord Kittens sections made me cringe so hard it almost made me quit the video.
But I am glad I stuck it out.
Almost made me quit the ARG 💀
Naw luckily Rita is actually pretty chill tho
Your minds are chained by cringe culture, it's insane honestly
@@epicvirgin6444 In my case, it's mostly just chained by red flags. Typically, discord users who refer to others as "kittens" are frequently discovered to be pedophiles.
@@everberon some of the comments here have said "kitten" could be the password, but idk
@@thedisabledvikingnope, just tried it (I will say it gave me a scare when it started loading as if it had worked lol)
Kitten might not be a nickname but a hint.
Also one of the trailers you showed mentioned something about “harvesting”.
Maybe everyone is thinking of Hell when we should look up. Purgatory? Heaven? Who knows?
The quantum inverter said it found its purpose in the “in between” so I was thinking purgatory or limbo
The “dance of hell below” could imply that hell is literally under where we are so limbo is a good thought
The quantum inverter found its purpose in the “in between” so limbo or purgatory would be fitting
4:12 lol you caught me on #6. Great Video
Haha sweet! Nice work!
When you talked about the "One Single Password" at the start I was dreading a Dashlane ad break that never came 😂
oh my god dashlane ad breaks, havent heard of that ad in a while lol
Holy God! It's Elevator Bossa Nova playing at 11:52!
God I hope the “Kittens” thing somehow retroactively makes sense and isn’t just a cringe thing.
Don't tell me that's the password...
@@adamkot5817 wont know unless someone tries it
It dosent work 😢
same. hella cringe
you seem like the type of person to send death threats
- Chief: We need answers God Dammit, and the trail is turning cold. I think we need to contact "him".
Later that day in a dinner at night.
- Chief: I've heard that when it comes to ARGs you are one of the best, I've come here because I need help.
-Matt: How many times do I have to tell your department that I don't theorize anymore, I am finally retired.
-Chief: I know but we are stuck and running out of options. The suspect in question left us a code and we need a pass code to break it, I know this isn't FNAF, but perhaps that is just what you need, just solve the code and then forget about it.
-Matt: .....
I might give it a look.
I'm going to go out and say that, from the fact the cyphertext needed a very specific tool to decypher, the mannerisms of the person who made the Arg, the fact that person is the publisher and not the developer, and the fact that the monitor only appears for some people (I have personally never got it to show), it all seems a bit poorly constructed, probably by someone so obsessed with lore in a game where there obviously is none that they pressured the developer to work with them on this. For legal resons surrounding libel law, that is my own speculation and not in any way an insinuation that a discord user that calls everyone "kitten" is a manipulative predator.
What I will insinuate is that this person didn't give two poos about accesibility, since they had to dump the specific tool on their discord for anyone to have a hope of progressing.
i feel the same about it, if it requires the creator of the ARG to get actively involved to advance a substantial part of the ARG, it's probably not worth it in the long run, doesn't seem to be thought out very well
What might be interesting is that the 1+ 619 at the beginning of the phone # suggests the volts is based in san deigo.
Everberon, I found a bit of an interesting thing. I decoded the string from the email. It's a HEX-code sequence that can be viewed in HxD editor
you know you've created an amazing mind-bending ARG when you need to be on discord hand-holding your "kittens" through obtuse clues the entire time
this entire arg is kind of poorly executed. it feels more like some kind of wild goose chase with us being the gooses and the arg's creator dangling a carrot on a stick rather than an actual immersive experience.
plus, being called a "kitten" and the creator calling themselves a "proud cat owner" in a grimey, dark and twisted game, is just so out of left field. leaves a weird taste about the entire thing.
maybe you're Dante, and the dealer is Vergil?
could have something to do with greed? (endless mode)
the Fourth Circle is guarded by "Plutus"
Greed is also known as "avarice"
i don't know if anything from the other games could give further hints, but its worth a shot to look into
So... Every single thing is a reference to the biggest biblical fanfic of an angry italian politician
It sure was nice of Mike to let his game get spun into all this
I know you tried Uzziah as a password, but it’s a name. Try naming your character Uzziah and see if something happens? Idk if that’s been tried before.
I think that there is not enough attention paid to Mike's other games, given that it's been straight up confirmed that at least some take place in the same universe. In specific, the Tartarus Engine, a game about an enormous supercomputer who's sole purpose is to simulate endless suffering. Given the many mentions of machinery and especially the bible verse it will surely be relevant in one way or another I think.
If this lore is going off of dante's inferno and the 9 circles of hell, this is the best i got for what i think it may mean. This goes off Mike Klubnika's games and the corresponding "layers" of hell.
0 - the darkwood - the other side
1 - limbo - tartarus engine
2 - lust - ???
3 - gluttony - buckshot roulette
4 - greed - For the Entity
5 - anger - ???
6 - heresy - control room alpha
7 - violence - concrete tremor
8 - fraud - core
9 - treachery - carbon steel
So much lore I just had no idea about, and to think it’s still going around. I’d throw my hat into the ring but I’m not nearly creative enough to make any progress. I just can’t see outside the box
Thank you for the video ! I was very curious about the extended lore of the game
This seemed cool at first but, 100% the weird discord mods fault for the ARG going cold. As soon as you have to start handing out hints for people to progress you've failed as an ARG. Real shame.
By popping in and saying "I made it good luck" the immersion begins to break. I'd personally pretend I don't know there's a whole ass ARG in my game lol
buckshot roulette predicted the crowdstrike situation 💀
11:54 is that the music that plays in the elevator in The Stanley Parable? i doubt that there is a correlation but it made me feel nostalgic
It's just generic elevator music
@@ThatNoobKingi don’t doubt that it’s generic elevator music i just think this specific generic music was probably used in many pieces of media which may include The Stanley Parable
@@rob-533 ah then probably
lmao we gotta call matpat tell him he has ONE. LAST. JOB.
I love videos like this that provide comprehensive deep dives into ARGs. Incredible job!
Got super fixated on the phone, ended up finding it's a N502it and there's a phone on a Wikimedia Commons with the exact same blemishes on the screen. The left hand button that looks like a face is originally the inbox icon which is an envelope with a 1 and the right hand one that looks like the dealer is a book.
At 11:50 the music that plays at the end of the phone call is the same music that plays in the game The Stanley Parable.
It plays when you enter the elevator near the boss's office.
Not sure if this is a hint or a reference, but it is worth of note
My 2 cents would be it's just a pop culture reference. That music is too overused to be able to point to any clear clue.
The 2 things that kept buzzing around is why on the website does 9 key does not finish the alphabet my small guess is that taking the scramble after the 9 key is its own possible code.
Second, is the start of that phone start-up, not all codes are set with text, maybe try an audio code there.
There is a PNG 1x1 pixel in the page idk what it's for
Oh god the poem relates to carbon steel so much.'they won't ever forgive me or will I not forgive myself.i made a wish upon a falling star and it brought me nothing but misery'says how the protagonist in carbon steel got prideful and did something terrible stated later on.'the machine hungers fed by blooming shots and blood and luck'relates to the machine that brought all of the pain to the underground creatures tortured by this machine.'its chewing,metallic,vile and still brings more comfort than the dance of hell'says how it feeds upon the monsters pain and states how it's worse than all the monsters underground.
this feels weirdly familiar to the ULTRAKILL ARG we had...
did you know buckshot roulette is made by an Estonian? (i am also Estonian, so it was such a big surprise to see that an Estonian made such a great game.)
I like to imagine that god in the game is not actually dead, and that you're his debt collector. Thats why you can retry whenever you can.
That area between the "bathroom" and "dining room" seems a bit interesting to me. I can't really check it myself because i know little about technology.
I bet Mr. Sandman snuck into the buckshot roulette bathroom just to write down his signature catchphrase.
Well, just stumbled in and decided to try a couple things. August 5, 1998 is Leo sign and Tiger zodiac (something I'm not convinced is coincidence with the players being referred to as 'kittens'). Did try checking the divine comedy for lions (as they are a common symbol in the Old Testament), found the woods scene and tried a few things related to that with no success (leopard, lion, pride and wolf are duds). Wouldn't discount the scene though, as I'm not exactly good at these things and I didn't take a lot of time trying to fit other pieces in.
Another idea would be to look into Otto Kretschemer or Todor Zhivkov, who both died that day. I'd lean more towards Zhivkov, as he was an eastern bloc leader and that's the kind of vibes I've been getting from the game.
The lion concept may have merit, as another commenter pointed out, Ärik is another spelling of Ariel, the "lion of Judah"
Sorry that ARG just seems Stupid especially with that "Rita" just pointing everything out. That kitten part also is just cringe, jesus.
what did you expect from a woman
@@al_the_crow
And what did you?
I actually didn't realize there was this much more, I thought the endings were the most of it
when a simple game goes so deep, it has these strange websites, offical Email's and phone numbers, your in for a very spooky time.
At 10:13, if you squint your eyes, you really can see the Dealer.
Maybe uzziah is the key phrase for a cipher? or 26:15.... actually maybe a time code? I know its verse and line but it fits, I'm throwing spaghetti at the wall to be honest. but they're ideas.
there's reading between the lines. there's also mention of salivation, the Adrenaline mentions one of the mortal sins, but the main character doesn't want money. They're in purgatory if the inverters text is to be believed, below hell (the rave) above paradise. of course alot of the games have that struggle for that, to be in a better place, or to find something better, paradise. that may be a later hint?
What is interesting to me is the matrix that is loaded at the computer prompt.
Thanks for the interesting video on a game I wont play, but will enjoy hearing more about.
now people should be aware more with the ARG!! thank you!!
Idea: the phone is actually a prototype model of the retail device, since the different coloring of it. and with volta's involvment with alive devices, the phone is a supernatural entity, accidentally created, that can tell you a bunch of information, that you cant access yourself due to being watched by the dealer
Truth be told, we'll have to wait for the multiplayer update to drop until we get a solution to the password
That's gonna be so hype
Imagine if the password is the way to unlock multiplayer update
With the mention of The Divine Comedy and lupos, or wolves, I wonder if anyone has tried the founders of Rome as passwords. Romulus or Remus
So very specific psalm was in the phone 26:15, so you have to now see what uzziahs chapter shows. There will be probably a hint on to your next chapter.
My thought is that the nightclub itself is hell, and that the dance floor is the 9th layer. The player is trapped forever in this hellish loop, dealing with the devil over and over again to try to gain freedom.
I'm pretty sure it's been confirmed the dealer is a robot and that everything is real and is taking place on earth or the equivalent
@@The-Okami-Project source pls
@@zeropoint70 I think he refers to the games itchio page.
all this talk about hell, engines and organic computers only made me think about mike's other game, Tartarus Engine
Might be a good place to look for clues especially since the unsorted horror collection on steam got updated 4 months ago. and it also includes the other side and concrete tremors, which might have something to do with volta
now that i think about it, the entire game of buckshot roulette might take place in one of the engine's simulations
i don't think so
the tartarus engine was designed for torment, not for pleasure
@@spaceacepl4636 idk if you'd classify endless games of life and death roulette as pleasure.
The pain after getting shot is real, "dying" seems canon based on the voice line from the dealer.
The money you get is just a carrot on a stick, in an endless game of pain
Cause even after you win, you come back for more gambling, more pain
@@spaceacepl4636 i dont think you could classify endless games of constantly getting shot in the head and revived as pleasure
the pain is real, and it seems "dying" is canon based on the dealer's lines.
the money you get is just a carrot on the stick, cause regardless if you win or lose you keep coming back for more gambling, more suffering
@@Milbyte11 it's still gambling though
and gambling isn't just suffering, it can also be an addiction, a way to feel joy not just from the reward a gambler gets, but also from the activity itself
also, is dying really the actual canon result of that encounter with the dealer?
i can't remember a single piece of dialogue which would suggest that the gambler died in that room instead of getting the cash
@@spaceacepl4636 no its when *you* die, aka on the 3rd phase when the dealer disables the defiblirators, after you respawn from the game over screen he says "I better not see you here again"
you can feel joy from even the most seemingly horrible activities, but thats not what addiction feels like most of the time, people that keep gambling describe it more as a state of numbness rather than joy
the game being a simulation in the engine also helps to explain the more "gamey" aspects, like the shotgun somehow regenerating the barrel after you use a saw, or how defiblirators can heal a hole in the head
What if the Nightclub is Purgatory?
Dang, I always knew the lore would be great, but not THIS great! I might participate, who knows :0
it always comes back to Dante's fanfic
/j
Real though
I don't think this line of thinking is going to lead anywhere, but has anyone looked into Klubnika's other games? If Buckshot Roulette takes place in the same universe, and the other games do have relevant details relating to Volta and such like I've been seeing in the comments, maybe we can find more pieces to put together there? Even if not through specific ARG elements than bits and pieces of lore to drive the next line of thinking?
There is something weird about the png of the tv, its like there is a picture over the tv in the website (not the password one) also there is png of 1x1 pixel idk why
13:00
the cutest people, are the ones with minds messed up enough to make the scariest of horrors